Command Entry

Very long commands are entered on multiple lines by appending an ampersand (&) to the command line. After you press ENTER, NeXtMidas prompts you for more command input on the next line.

nM>fft data &
->fftout &
->1 1024
Command Completion

A question mark (?) appearing at the end of a partial command line prompts NeXtMidas for command arguments. For example,

nM>status ? <ENTER>

gives the prompt:

FILE=

You can also use the question mark halfway through a command line. If you filled in some of the arguments but forgot the rest of the syntax, type a question mark and hit ENTER. The arguments you already filled in become default values for the prompt. After each prompt, NeXtMidas displays the completed command line which you can either edit or press ENTER to execute.

Execution Mode

To explicitly direct a command to the operating system, precede it with a dollar sign ($). This avoids command ambiguity. For example, typing HELP at the NeXtMidas prompt invokes the NeXtMidas HELP command, but $HELP invokes the help facility of the operating system.